THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The children always cross the school gate with a smile and run to the vegetable garden. They compete to water the vegetables that are sprouting, blooming, and bearing fruit. The cauliflowers were smiling at them in the vegetable garden when they left school on Friday evening. When they returned on Monday, they were nowhere to be seen, making them cry. Thirty cauliflowers and cabbages grown in the Thycaud Govt. Model LPS premises were stolen.
Swetha, Amya, Aadhya, Sivanandana and Aksha, who are students of the third standard, stood looking at each other with tears in their eyes. The girls used to water them in the morning and evening regularly. They were waiting to harvest them on Monday, but before that it got stolen. Do they know the pain in these children's hearts? The children burst into tears after looking at the plants that were empty of fruit. The teachers stood around, unable to console them. The 30 cauliflowers that were lost from the school's vegetable garden were the result of a combined effort of children from nursery to fourth grade.
Teacher Sunita G.S. said that every day there will be some ingredient from the school garden that the students have planted and watered in the school lunch. The vegetable garden was established in the school after COVID. The children are cultivating beetroot, brinjal, okra, tomatoes, cauliflower, green chillies, and spinach. They water and take care of them in the morning and evening. The vegetable garden behind the school was expanded to the front of the school due to their enthusiasm and care. The children also received 120 plant pots from the Krishi Bhavan. "Last week, five cauliflowers were lost. But we didn't care much about it," said Sunita. "But the sight we saw on Monday was a great pain not only for the children but also for us too."
Haven't recieved surveillance cameras
A request was made to the corporation for installing surveillance cameras in the school, but that hasn't happened yet. If there had been a camera, such a theft in the vegetable garden perhaps would not have happened. Following the information from the PTA office bearers, the police, led by the museum SHO, visited the school and conducted an inspection.